Fireman&#39;s helmet



Aug. 17, 1965 J. J. PROULX y fi FIREMAN'S HELMET Filed Dec. 8, 1961INVENTOR Jmfm QKPPWM. BY WW ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,201,771FEREMANS HELMET .lohn I. Preuix, Glenweud Ave, Middlebury, Conn. FiledDec. 8, 1951, Ser. No. 158,143 Claims. (Cl. 340-22'7) This inventionrelates to firemens helmets and particularly to one installed with awarning device to give audible and/ or visible signals when a fireman isexposed to too severe heat conditions.

One of the dangerous factors for firemen in fighting fires is that intheir desire and enthusiasm to get at the source of the fire they oftenare not aware of the high ambient temperatures in which they may beoperating to extinguish a blaze, and as a consequence they may beseriously burnt. Experience has also shown that often when fighting afire, portions of a building or stock stored therewithin may have becomeso hot before the fireman arrive that when water is first applied afiash of steam may result that can inflict a greater and more damaginginjury than from a superheated atmosphere. It is for the purpose ofgiving adequate warning to any fireman that I have made this inventionto forestall his entering too far into a burning building too dangerousfor his own safety.

It is therefore one of the objects of this invention to provide afiremans helmet with a series of thermostatic elements tied into anelectric circuit and placed at spaced positions around the helmet, andwhich thermostats are set to close the circuit and give audible and/or alight signal when the fireman wearing the helmet is exposed to adangerous heat condition.

A further object is to place a switch in the circuit in such a manner asto short out the thermostats and permit the switch to be manuallyoperated so as to energize the audible and light signals in case thefireman should get lost or trapped within a blazing building.

Other objects and advantages of the tnvention will be come apparent fromthe following description when read in connection with accompanyingdrawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a firemans helmet embodying myinvention and with portions broken away to show interior construction;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the same on a slightly smaller scale;

FIG. 3 is a top plan View of the same; and

FIG. 4 is a layout view of the wiring diagram for the electric units.

Referring now to the drawing, the numeral designates generally afiremans helmet consisting of a brim 11, a crown 12 and a reenforcingrib l3 raised upwardly and extending lengthwise of the apex of thecrown. Mounted on the front of the crown above the brim is a casing 14in which is located an audible warning unit 15. The casing includes aremovable cover plate 16 secured to said casing as by screws 16a. Asmall light socket 17a is mounted upon the upper section of the coverplate 16 for receiving a light bulb 17 that functions as a warningsignal. Projecting through a suitable opening 18 in the cover plate 16and adjacent the warning light 17 is a manually operated switch 19 thatoperates said light and the audible warning unit as will be explainedlater.

The audible warning unit 15 is a tone oscillator or sounding device thatis mounted on the back of the cover plate 16 and further description ofthis unit is considered unnecessary.

The battery required to operate the tone oscillator consists of two drycells 20 such as used for operating a portable flash light and areconfined in a casing 21. The casing 21 with its batteries are preferablymounted on the top of the helmet, so as to obtain a better distributionof the weight of the units attached to the helmet and not place 32%,??1Patented Aug. 17, 1965 an excessive amount of weight on the front of thehelmet. As shown in FIG. 1 the battery casing 21 is fixed to the top ofthe reenforcing rib 13 in any suitable manner. The dry cell batteries 20are mounted on an insulated plate 22 and held in place by the usualspring clips 23.

In order to operate the tone oscillator 15 and warning light 17, use ismade of four heat detector units, 25, 26, 27 and 28, one positioned oneach of the four sides of the helmet crown 12 and preferably slightlyabove the brim 11. These detector units are preferably of theheatactuated thermostatic type using bi-metallic bars for closing thecircuit when subjected to a predetermined amount of heat, and set tooperate at approximately degrees (Fahrenheit). The front detector unit15 is mounted on an offset bracket 29 secured to the front face of theaudible unit casing 14, the oifset portion being spaced from an opening(not shown) in the cover plate 16 through which audible signals areemitted when said unit 15 is operating. The side detector units 2-6 and27 and rear detector 28 are mounted respectively on the crown 12 asshown in the first three views of the drawing.

The manner in which all the electric units are electrically joinedtogether is shown in FIG. 4. The heat detector units 25-28 are joined inparallel through main circuit lines 30 and 31, the line 30 beingconnected to one side of the battery 20 while the line 31 leads to oneside of the tone oscillator 15. The opposite side of the tone oscillatoris joined to the battery 20 through line 32. The signal light 17 isjoined to line 31 and line 32 and thus in parallel with the toneoscillator 15 so that one of the warning units will at least operate incase the other fails. In case the operator should desire to operate thewarning light or tone oscillator independently of the heat-detectorunits, the switch 19 is joined across the main circuit lines 30 and 31between said detector units 25-28 and the warning units 15 and 17.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of myinvention, various modifications may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a firemans helmet having the usual brim and crown in combinationwith a warning system, of a casing mounted on said crown and having anelectrically operated audible signal unit, a battery carried by saidhelmet, and plurality of heat-detector units positioned about theoutside of said helmet and arranged in parallel with each other and inseries with the battery and the audible signal unit so that when one ormore of the heat-detector units is operated to close the circuit theaudible signal unit will be energized.

2. In a firemans helmet having the usual brim and crown in combinationwith a warning system, of a casing mounted on said crown and having anelectrically operated audible signal unit and a light signal unit, abattery carried by said helmet, and a plurality of heat detector unitspositioned about the outside of said helmet and arranged in parallelwith each other and in series with the battery and the audible and lightsignal units so that when one or more of the heat-detector units isoperated to close the circuit the audible and light signal units will beenergized.

3. In a firemans helmet as defined in claim 2 wherein the casing for theaudible and light signal units is mounted on front of the hat crown.

4. In a firemans helmet as defined in claim 3 wherein a casing isprovided for housing the battery independent of the casing for thewarning units and so positioned to the helmet as to counterbalance theweight of the audibleand-light signal unit casing.

5. In a firemans helmet as defined in claim 3 wherein a casing isprovided for housing the battery independent of the casing for thewarning units and which battery casing is mounted on the top of thehelmet crown.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Finks 340-366Ullery et a1 340190 Kratvi-lle 340-214 Wortman 340-321 Keller et a1340366 Neu 340-58 NEIL C. READ, Primary Examiner.

BENNETT G. MILLER, Examiner.

